Gastonia approves streets to be resurfaced, but not without criticism

Drivers who venture down 34 specific road sections across Gastonia will be treated to a smoother ride in the coming months.

But before endorsing the latest contract to resurface what are supposedly the worst streets in Gastonia, city leaders had some questions about how those 34 candidates were selected. And one City Council member said he simply doesn’t believe the selection process makes sense.

Council members on Tuesday unanimously approved a $1.73 million contract with Blythe Construction of Charlotte to resurface roughly nine miles of road within the city limits. Some of the 34 street sections will also be milled down prior to the resurfacing, while some will also have new curbing installed as part of the work. Castlegate Street will be the only one to receive new speed humps.

Funding for the work will come from three sources, including state Powell Bill money, the city’s general fund, and revenues the city receives from an annual license tag registration fee.

The city pays an independent contractor roughly $40,000 every four years to assess every portion of its 300-plus miles of streets, said Development Services Director Rusty Bost. Based on the condition of the asphalt, street sections are assigned a rating from 0 to 100, with a higher number representing a road’s better condition. Lower ranked streets are given priority when the time comes to resurface every year.

Councilman David Humphries said that four-year rotation is inadequate for effectively keeping up with street conditions. He and his peers suggested conducting the assessments every two or three years in the future.

“There are a lot of streets that can change in just a few months,” he said. “The more bad weather there is, the more potholes, the more patching there is, and patches break down.”

Priorities questioned

City Councilman Todd Pierceall, who has questioned the ranking system for the past three years, provided visual evidence of why it doesn’t make sense to him. He compared photos of one Gastonia street that will not be resurfaced this year against photos of another that will be. The former street appeared to be in much worse shape, while the latter street – in the affluent Su San Farms subdivision of Gastonia – was comparably in much better condition.

Pierceall also referenced a span on North Firestone Street where he recently counted 41 patches and repairs within less than a tenth of a mile. That also did not rank low enough to be resurfaced this year.

“I do not understand how this can be considered better than this,” he said, pointing to the contrasting photos.

Bost said patches alone may be an aesthetic problem on a street, but other roads without a lot of patches may have underlying structural issues that boosted their position in the pecking order. Resurfacing also isn’t necessary in every case to repair the problems on a street, as there may sometimes be more affordable ways to address it, he said.

Councilman Robert Kellogg referenced the higher property tax bills that Su San Farms residents pay, relative to other residents.

“In defense of Su San Farms, those people pay heck of a lot in taxes. They don’t ask for much,” he said. “All they ask is for their streets to be paved.”

Pierceall responded that it would be unwise for the city to ever determine what each resident should get in city services based on the property taxes they pay. And while he voted in favor of this year’s resurfacing contract because the bid had already gone out, he promised he won’t again without evidence of a more logical ranking system.

“I’ll torpedo this in a heartbeat,” he said. “What I see with my own two eyes when I go out and can kick some asphalt out of the road, there’s no way you’re going to convince me that road’s in better shape than one where I drive out and I can’t even find what’s wrong with it.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.